Abstract
The Arab Peace Initiative (former Saudi Initiative) was officially proposed by Saudi Arabia and has been (re-)endorsed by all 22 member states of the Arab League since 2002. Israel has not officially responded to the API but rather has generally ignored and by default rejected it. This thesis examines the reasons for the Israeli rejection by analyzing the structure of the Israeli government in relation to the position of the prime minister, both normatively and descriptively, and examining public opinion as a potential enabler or constraint on policymaking. It also explores mechanisms such as threat perceptions and framing to highlight cognitive influences that negatively impacted serious consideration of the API. Qualitative interviews with expert Israelis and Arabs contribute to a deeper understanding of the Israeli perspective of the API’s shortcomings. The API is unlikely to be implemented under this current government unless Israeli public opinion significantly changes in its favor.

Abandoned Yet Central: Gaza and the Resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Sunday, November 23, 4:30m-6:30pm

Organized by Sara Roy

Chair: Sara Roy, Harvard University

Chris Gunness, UNRWA, Office of the Commissioner General, Jerusalem

Paul Aaron, Political Analyst and Consultant, Gaza Community Mental Health Program

Bill Corcoran, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)

Ilana Feldman, George Washington University

Brian Barber, University of Tennessee

Susan Akram, Boston University School of Law

This session will present an overview of the past summer’s violent clashes between Israeli and Hamas forces and the ensuing destruction in Gaza. Representatives from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) will provide an “on-the-ground” analysis of the destruction and human toll of the 50-day war. Scholars will further place the recent violence in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and examine the prerequisites for a sustainable resolution of the conflict.

A well-known Israeli maxim — attributed to Israel’s legendary foreign minister Abba Eban — holds that “the Arabs [or Palestinians] never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” The analysis of Israel’s position toward the API demonstrates that the Arabs and the Palestinians have no monopoly on missed opportunities in the century-long conflict. In fact, my research on missed opportunities in the conflict shows that Israel missed quite a few opportunities, of which the API was probably the greatest.

The API is still on the negotiating table. Only recently, Turki Al-Faisal, former director of the Saudi intelligence agency and former ambassador to the UK and US, argued that the initiative “still provides a template for peace.” Indeed, the convergence of the following developments in the Middle East has once again created an opportunity to relaunch the API: First, John Kerry’s failure to broker a bilateral Israeli-Palestinian agreement due to both parties’ intransigent positions; second, the rise and success of jihadist elements in the Middle East, which creates fertile ground for potential cooperation between Israel and the moderate forces in the Arab world; third, the instability in the Arab world caused by the negative ramifications of the Arab Spring; fourth, the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which highlighted that only a regional solution to the conflict would be able to tackle the entire Palestinian problem. In light of these sea changes in the Middle East, the API seems to be the main avenue for a diplomatic breakthrough that would bring some stability to an area besieged by turmoil. Based on its history, the chances that Israel will pick up the gauntlet are slim, but the country now has an opportunity to correct mistakes made over the last 12 years.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most prominent issues in world politics today. Few other issues have dominated the world’s headlines and have attracted such attention from policy makers, the academic community, political analysts, and the world’s media.

The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of the most contentious and protracted political issue in the Middle East. Bringing together a range of top experts from Israel, Palestine, Europe and North America the Handbook tackles a range of topics including:

The historical background to the conflict

peace efforts

domestic politics

critical issues such as displacement, Jerusalem and settler movements

the role of outside players such as the Arab states, the US and the EU

This Handbook provides the reader with an understanding of the complexity of the issues that need to be addressed in order to resolve the conflict, and a detailed examination of the varied interests of the actors involved. In-depth analysis of the conflict is supplemented by a chronology of the conflict, key documents and a range of maps.

The contributors are all leading authorities in their field and have published extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict/peace process. Many have played a leading role in various Track II initiatives accompanying the peace process.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Competing Nationalisms

1. The Origins of Zionism Colin Schindler

2. The Palestinian National Movement: from self-rule to statehood Ahmad Samih Khalidi